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Thursday, January 23, 2014

52 weeks of baking: a summary

A month late, but whatever. Let's talk about that time I baked something weekly for an entire year!

The first week of January last year I saw a couple bloggers starting "a year of cakes" or "a treat a day". I'm a lover of sweet things and of challenges, so I came up with "52 weeks of baking". I wanted to be cool too. So I did it. Baked something once a week for a whole year. And it wasn't that hard. I love baking and was doing it a lot anyway as it was, this just took it to the next level. There were some close calls when things were especially busy, some OMG I HAVE TO BAKE SOMETHING RIGHT NOW THE WEEK'S ALMOST OVERRRR, but I made it. I didn't repeat a recipe once, although there were some doubles, like multiple chocolate cakes and quite a few chocolate chip cookie variations, but never the same recipe twice. It was FUN. And yummy. I ended up making some truly wonderful things and am a significantly better baker this January than I was last January. I mean, I'd hope so, right?

So to toot my own horn, because it's oh so satisfying to see it in list form, here are the 52 things I baked:

1. Banana bread

2. Betty Crocker fudge brownies

3. Mini-morsel shortbread squares

4. Everyday chocolate cake

5. Lime and blackberry cake

6. Yellow cake

7. Oatmeal cream pies

8. Zucchini carrot cake

9. Pumpkin cupcakes

10. Honey chocolate chip cookies

11. Coconut shortbread

12. Chocolate cake

13. Strawberry cream cheese cobbler

14. Coconut bread

15. Chocolate zucchini cake

16. Banana chocolate chip cupcakes

17. Simple white cake

18. Chocolate chip cookies

19. Grapefruit yogurt cake

20. Maple cream pie

21. Apple crumble

22. Snickerdoodle cookies

23. Peach hand pies

24. Quick breads

25. Molasses cookies

26. Chocolate caramel brownies

27. Fourth of July cake

28. Peach galette

29. Lemon cheesecake

30. Rosemary chocolate cake

31. Chocolate cake #2

32. Lemon cake with black tea icing

33. Chocolate chip pretzels

34. Coconut chocolate chip cookies

35. Salted caramel brownies

36. Flourless chocolate cake

37. Donuts

38. Lemon cupcakes

39. Salted caramel dark chocolate chip cookies

40. Pumpkin bread

41. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

42. Pumpkin coffee cake

43. Pumpkin swirl brownies

44. Lemon gingerbread cupcakes

45. Apple slab pie

46. Snickerdoodle cookies #2

47. Cream cheese pound cake

48. Black bottom oatmeal pie

49. Spice cake

50. Chocolate lava cake

51. Gingerbread men

52. Double chocolate torte

They are here, just in reverse order, newest first. There were some minor fails thrown in there, but nothing inedible. For the most part it was all yummy. We were stocked up on dessert for a year! And now after dinner we're kind of like, awww, there's no dessert. Although I have baked chocolate chip cookies. And Brendon made banana bread. So the baking continues, just not as structured. Or frequent.

It was really fun experience. I loved the challenge and the accountability. I also loved feeding all our friends. Thank you for helping eat all the baked goodies folks! I've got to give a special shout out to the future pharmacists though, you guys ate so much and sent Brendon home with the sweetest compliments. Thank you! And thanks to everyone who suggested recipes! And everyone who followed along with this nonsense throughout the year!

Thanks for tagging along. It was a good year of baking. And I'm not diabetic, so that's a bonus.